7 ms·

I read a transcript of an endocrinologist suggesting intermittent fasting (don’t eat after 6 and wait as long as you can before your first meal - start with 10a

I read a transcript of an endocrinologist suggesting intermittent fasting (don’t eat after 6 and wait as long as you can before your first meal - start with 10am and keep pushing back as long as you can). Then eat only veggies for your first meal, then veggies and a deck of cards serving of meat for dinner. Honestly, it sounds very difficult, but the doctor seemed very confident that this works. I have started trying this (not T2, but need to lose weight) Anecdotally, a lot of people have suggested keto and low-carb diets having been successful for them. The source was Tegus (https://www.tegus.com/ https://www.tegus.com/) which my company had a free trial.

ramraj07 4y ago
The consensus from the most sensible people is, do the diet you can stick to, in the end just eat less. That’s most important.
- chrisgd 4y ago
  Not sure I agree
- theduder99 4y ago
  yep, same deal with exercise. Doesn't matter how, I just wanted some type of movement that I could get into the habit of. Tried a bunch of different activities but was not able to form a habit until I got a rowing machine and even then I still have days where I don't want to use it :)
  - balls187 4y ago
    For those days, find something less, like light stretching, outdoor walk, skipping rope etc.
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  My Candy diet isn’t having the results I desire. It is, however, delicious.
  - uberduper 4y ago
    This isn't an exception. Eat less.
    - dpdpdp 4y ago
      This is definitely an exception, one would be deficient in just about every (micro)nutrient and therefore expire much faster than a normal human. While also being much more miserable.
      - uberduper 4y ago
        Oh, I guess we're taking this candy diet suggestion far more seriously than I originally thought. It wouldn't require a whole lot of thought to come up with an all candy diet that supplied the minimum necessary nutrition. How broad is our definition of "candy" for this? Are you willing to consider candied fruits, vegetables, and bacon? Chocolate covered things? How much dark chocolate would we have to add to something to consider it candy?
        imwillofficial 4y ago
        Nobody should be taking my candy diet seriously
        dpdpdp 4y ago
        Well put, now you have me wanting to try this candy diet.
    - throwaway821909 4y ago
      Mostly agree but if your diet is particularly bad, just eating less will mean existing nutrient deficiencies are magnified and (probably for this reason) you'll feel more hungry than you need to, increasing the chances you give up. IMO.
adrian_b 4y ago
When losing weight, it is important to continue to eat a normal amount of proteins, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Only either the carbohydrates or the (non-essential) fats or both must be reduced. It does not matter which of them is reduced, as long as the total calorie amount is restricted enough. It may matter only due to personal preferences, which may make one variant or the other easier to support. One must use some digital scales for measuring the weight every day at precisely the same moment, because the weight varies during a day by much more than the difference between 2 successive days. An appropriate rate of losing weight is between 100 grams and 200 grams per day, e.g. about 1 kg per week. If the measurements show another rate, then the amount of daily food must be increased or decreased until the rate is in range. Regardless with which diet you start, if you adjust the amount of carbohydrates and fat according to the daily weight measurements, in a week or so you will converge to the right amount of daily food. However, this requires to measure by mass or by volume all the food eaten. Those who do not succeed to lose weight fail because they either do not measure what they eat or they cannot abstain from eating more than what they have planned to eat. Losing the weight is the easier part. More important is to plan a diet for after reaching the target weight, a diet that will keep the weight constant, i.e. which must still be calorie-restricted, but at a normal level, and which must be appealing enough, so that one would never be tempted to eat again in the way that caused the overweight in the beginning.
- fock 4y ago
  > One must use some digital scales for measuring the weight every day at precisely the same moment, because the weight varies during a day by much more than the difference between 2 successive days. or just do a moving average over some days. Works better.
- doliveira 4y ago
  Losing 1kg a week is not "about appropriate", it's pretty much the maximum. And water weight, fecal residues, etc vary so much day by day. Were yours so constant insofar to be able to track it accurately to the grams?
  - adrian_b 4y ago
yazaddaruvala 4y ago
> Then eat only veggies for your first meal, then veggies and a deck of cards serving of meat for dinner. > lot of people have suggested keto and low-carb diets Just always remember: while rice, pasta and bread are vegetarian they are not vegetables.
bitwize 4y ago
C-f fasting You never disappoint, Hackernews.
- smcl 4y ago
  Fad diets like intermittent fasting or keto will pop up anywhere anyone’s talking about weight loss or health issues sometimes associated with being fat. It’s not particular to HN and it’s sadly not going to go away :-/
  - uberduper 4y ago
    At what point would you stop considering intermittent fasting or keto to be fad diets?
    - smcl 4y ago
      At no point, same with Atkins, Paleo, Jordy P's "steak only" diet and the rest. Fad diets are simply what they are.
      - uberduper 4y ago
        You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
        smcl 4y ago
        Sorry to say but you're mistaken, these are all fad diets and it's not really disputed. If you think they become elevated to something greater because of a few hangers on who haven't switched to Dr McFuck's Green Purée diet (or whatever the next one is) then you're mistaken - there are still people on Atkins, for example, a classic fad diet. The pattern is that a miracle diet is announced that promises guaranteed results, over the course of a few years a load of people get on board, each individual loses a lot in the first few weeks but most gain it back (true for all diets). In the meantime people make bank selling courses and books and pitching it as the central component of their Success Win Lifestyle, until the next one comes along and the cycle repeats. If one of those fad diets are working for you, great - stick with it. But don't worry, there will always be another one around the corner.
dmix 4y ago
Low-calorie diets are a poor gateway to weight loss and health, where low-carb counts tends to do the real work. Calorie-counting typically leaves people hungry when they should just be eating better food. Mediterranean, paleo, vegetarian, low-calorie etc diets almost always achieve the same low-carb goals, but low-calorie is the least practical...while sadly also being the most popular. Just telling people to "eat less" is never an effective solution. There's a severe lack of good studies showing low-calories actually lowers weight long-term. The fact this study has 25 people is typical. If you can eat a stable amount of food until satiety (still not-excessive amounts) while still achieving the same health/weight goals then obviously that would be the best solution. I've asked before on HN to send me a study showing low-calorie diets are effective at reducing weight longterm and I still haven't seen one. Yet low-carb and type 2 diabetes go hand-in-hand with other treatments (most importantly pre-diabetics which is critical).

ramraj07 4y ago

The consensus from the most sensible people is, do the diet you can stick to, in the end just eat less. That’s most important.

chrisgd 4y ago
Not sure I agree
theduder99 4y ago
yep, same deal with exercise. Doesn't matter how, I just wanted some type of movement that I could get into the habit of. Tried a bunch of different activities but was not able to form a habit until I got a rowing machine and even then I still have days where I don't want to use it :)
- balls187 4y ago
  For those days, find something less, like light stretching, outdoor walk, skipping rope etc.
imwillofficial 4y ago
My Candy diet isn’t having the results I desire. It is, however, delicious.
- uberduper 4y ago
  This isn't an exception. Eat less.
  - dpdpdp 4y ago
    This is definitely an exception, one would be deficient in just about every (micro)nutrient and therefore expire much faster than a normal human. While also being much more miserable.
    - uberduper 4y ago
      Oh, I guess we're taking this candy diet suggestion far more seriously than I originally thought. It wouldn't require a whole lot of thought to come up with an all candy diet that supplied the minimum necessary nutrition. How broad is our definition of "candy" for this? Are you willing to consider candied fruits, vegetables, and bacon? Chocolate covered things? How much dark chocolate would we have to add to something to consider it candy?
      - imwillofficial 4y ago
        Nobody should be taking my candy diet seriously
      - dpdpdp 4y ago
        Well put, now you have me wanting to try this candy diet.
  - throwaway821909 4y ago
    Mostly agree but if your diet is particularly bad, just eating less will mean existing nutrient deficiencies are magnified and (probably for this reason) you'll feel more hungry than you need to, increasing the chances you give up. IMO.

adrian_b 4y ago

When losing weight, it is important to continue to eat a normal amount of proteins, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Only either the carbohydrates or the (non-essential) fats or both must be reduced. It does not matter which of them is reduced, as long as the total calorie amount is restricted enough. It may matter only due to personal preferences, which may make one variant or the other easier to support. One must use some digital scales for measuring the weight every day at precisely the same moment, because the weight varies during a day by much more than the difference between 2 successive days. An appropriate rate of losing weight is between 100 grams and 200 grams per day, e.g. about 1 kg per week. If the measurements show another rate, then the amount of daily food must be increased or decreased until the rate is in range. Regardless with which diet you start, if you adjust the amount of carbohydrates and fat according to the daily weight measurements, in a week or so you will converge to the right amount of daily food. However, this requires to measure by mass or by volume all the food eaten. Those who do not succeed to lose weight fail because they either do not measure what they eat or they cannot abstain from eating more than what they have planned to eat. Losing the weight is the easier part. More important is to plan a diet for after reaching the target weight, a diet that will keep the weight constant, i.e. which must still be calorie-restricted, but at a normal level, and which must be appealing enough, so that one would never be tempted to eat again in the way that caused the overweight in the beginning.

fock 4y ago
> One must use some digital scales for measuring the weight every day at precisely the same moment, because the weight varies during a day by much more than the difference between 2 successive days. or just do a moving average over some days. Works better.
doliveira 4y ago
Losing 1kg a week is not "about appropriate", it's pretty much the maximum. And water weight, fecal residues, etc vary so much day by day. Were yours so constant insofar to be able to track it accurately to the grams?
- adrian_b 4y ago

yazaddaruvala 4y ago

> Then eat only veggies for your first meal, then veggies and a deck of cards serving of meat for dinner. > lot of people have suggested keto and low-carb diets Just always remember: while rice, pasta and bread are vegetarian they are not vegetables.

bitwize 4y ago

C-f fasting You never disappoint, Hackernews.

smcl 4y ago
Fad diets like intermittent fasting or keto will pop up anywhere anyone’s talking about weight loss or health issues sometimes associated with being fat. It’s not particular to HN and it’s sadly not going to go away :-/
- uberduper 4y ago
  At what point would you stop considering intermittent fasting or keto to be fad diets?
  - smcl 4y ago
    At no point, same with Atkins, Paleo, Jordy P's "steak only" diet and the rest. Fad diets are simply what they are.
    - uberduper 4y ago
      You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
      - smcl 4y ago
        Sorry to say but you're mistaken, these are all fad diets and it's not really disputed. If you think they become elevated to something greater because of a few hangers on who haven't switched to Dr McFuck's Green Purée diet (or whatever the next one is) then you're mistaken - there are still people on Atkins, for example, a classic fad diet. The pattern is that a miracle diet is announced that promises guaranteed results, over the course of a few years a load of people get on board, each individual loses a lot in the first few weeks but most gain it back (true for all diets). In the meantime people make bank selling courses and books and pitching it as the central component of their Success Win Lifestyle, until the next one comes along and the cycle repeats. If one of those fad diets are working for you, great - stick with it. But don't worry, there will always be another one around the corner.

dmix 4y ago

Low-calorie diets are a poor gateway to weight loss and health, where low-carb counts tends to do the real work. Calorie-counting typically leaves people hungry when they should just be eating better food. Mediterranean, paleo, vegetarian, low-calorie etc diets almost always achieve the same low-carb goals, but low-calorie is the least practical...while sadly also being the most popular. Just telling people to "eat less" is never an effective solution. There's a severe lack of good studies showing low-calories actually lowers weight long-term. The fact this study has 25 people is typical. If you can eat a stable amount of food until satiety (still not-excessive amounts) while still achieving the same health/weight goals then obviously that would be the best solution. I've asked before on HN to send me a study showing low-calorie diets are effective at reducing weight longterm and I still haven't seen one. Yet low-carb and type 2 diabetes go hand-in-hand with other treatments (most importantly pre-diabetics which is critical).